A group of students from University of Rwanda’s School of Medicine has embarked on a campaign that seeks to ease surgical burden in the country.
The students, under the University of Rwanda Surgical Student Society (URSSS), initiated the project last month, with a view to raise awareness about existing surgical gaps and inspire more people into pursuing a career in surgery.
Félicien Uwayezu, the URSSS director for global surgery and exchange, said that, with "endless pending surgical cases at the emergency department at district and referral hospitals, shortage of physicians or surgeons and the increased cost of surgical care in health financing are a serious issue.”
Patients often have complex surgical problems that are usually worsened by long waits before one can see a doctor, he said.
"Yet”, Uwayezu said, globally, "The urgent need for surgical care in the world’s poorest regions is widely unrecognised.”
He pointed to a February 2020 study in tertiary hospitals, which, he said, showed that 29 per cent of general and orthopaedic surgery patients had experienced delays in seeing a doctor, with just 38.5 per cent of patients accessing care on time.
One of the things they hope to achieve, he said, is to encourage more students and graduates of general medicine to take up a career in surgery.
Lack of interest in surgical career
Uwayezu said that most medicine graduates are reluctant to go on and specialise in surgery, with some arguing that it is complicated or too expensive.
"There is a general lack of interest and this has not helped the situation,” he said.
He explained that this is partly done through a mentorship programme, under which they work closely with practicing surgeons who regularly talk to medical students, with a view to inspiring them into becoming surgeons themselves.
"We also organise workshops for basic surgery skills while medical students are also able to go to operating theatres to assist with the procedure and have a practical first-hand experience,” he added.
He said, "We believe that this will increasingly encourage more and more medical graduates to pursue a career in surgery.”
Dr Allan Ingabire, an orthopaedic surgeon at the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (CHUK), agreed with Uwayezu’s assessment of the situation.
For instance, he said, "in the orthopaedic department at CHUK, we have four surgeons only, and that results into a big burden because the number of patients is more than ten times ours.”
He explained that sometimes they receive over 50 cases in a single day as nly a few hospitals in the country offer surgical services, adding that most of them lack enough equipment.
Delays in seeing a doctor often pose a risk to the health of patients, he said.
Outreach drive
A patient who was last month operated on a leg following an accident, who spoke to The New Times on condition of anonymity from his hospital bed at CHUK, said he had seen patients who had waited for a long time before seeing a doctor.
Dr Ingabire said that, in an effort to help ease the cost of surgery and reduce the waiting period, CHUK had come up with an outreach programme under which surgeons travel to the countryside to operate on patients.
"This helps those who are struggling with cost because they don’t need to look for transport to travel to Kigali, but this is only a small contribution,” he said.
Marie Jeanne Twagirayezu, a mother whose son has been in the CHUK surgery ward for three years due to burns, said that although it is evident that doctors are overwhelmed, they always do their best to serve patients.
"They have been there for me and my son throughout this difficult period and I am so grateful,” said Twagirayezu, from Rutsiro District.